Posts Tagged ‘spirituality’

A colleague came to me the other day and wanted to know if I could help him with an ethical dilemma. It seems that a friend of his was visiting and the friend’s car was towed during the night. After a bit of inquiry, they discovered that the car had been towed because of a parking violation.

Here’s the scenario my colleague presented:

My friend is disabled.

My friend lives on a fixed income.

My friend has calculated to the penny how to live in South Florida for three months this winter and has no extra money or income.

My colleague has an ongoing feud with his condo owner’s association. (They don’t see eye to eye right now).

My colleague has a generous income and is not on a tight budget. (He can afford the $150 towing bill).

My colleague and his friend went out to dinner and when they returned, parked the friend’s truck for the night. The friend backed into the parking space. Backing in to a parking space is against the rules at my colleague’s condo, not to mention actually illegal in Florida.

Next morning, the friend wakes my colleague telling him that his truck is gone.

After calling in late to work and finally discovering what happened to the truck, the friend leaves and says he’s never coming back.

My colleague asked me what he should do about this.

At this point, I’m at a loss. Then the colleague reveals this nugget:“I knew that backing in to the parking space was against the rules, but I didn’t say anything.”

Ok. Game changes.

D. If you knew that backing in was not allowed and you have also been in this war with your condo association – why wouldn’t you say anything to your friend?

“I thought it would be ok – that they wouldn’t do anything.”

D, really?

My colleague’s question was this: “Should I offer to pay for the towing, or at least part of it?”

D, I say, “——“

I know what I told him, but I’m interested in what you would have told him. What do you think he should do? And why? We’re presented with these moral/ethical questions quite often. How do we stay in spiritual flow and make decisions that maintain our equilibrium and integrity?